Spring - Sprung on us

 leaped up and bit us on the ass

My thoughts. We are watching ' the Darkest Hour ', the dramtization of the early days of war for England in 1940. So like, Ukraine, right now, vastly superior motorized forces raced through the Low Countires and France.

However, over all that is, the knowlwedge that ' you better stop complaining b/c someone is worse off than you '

To wit, M said to my older cousin, ' I'm tking 4 pills a day '
the reply was ' I'm taking 18 '   < this is the cousin that I visited recently >

As well, our neighbours and friends have Covid. The family attended a Maple Leafs game - full capacity and masking was optional. The game was Sunday and the youngest next door tested positive on Monday. Cold symptoms and fever abound next door.

The Gloom

 as we await, freezing something. Sleet, pellets- its March, could be snow

I went visiting, yesterday, a slightly older cousin had invited me over.

We did not grow up together, she was always more aunt than cousin. Yet, we have so much in common b/c we did see each other monthly or weekly, depending.

Follow up. ' Rebel in  the Rye ' the story of J.D. Salinger. Luckily, ' Cathcer in the Rye ' is  published and explodesonto the literary scene. Unfortunately, so does the person, Jerry Salinger. Salinger is uncomfortable w/ the acclaim and ' lionizing ' he has achieved. His withdrawl from the world and his mentor and friends is predicatble as you watch the time pass.

J.D.S. has a few more successes but that is not enough or rather too much.... way too much. The solution ... keep writing but  do not publish. That is what he does. Never again.

Sadly, for you, I'll keep writing but you can stop reading or abetting  the blog.

And then - here is the story from here. we haven't been travelling to the U.S. and certain services have expired or gone dormant. Our pay- as - you - go Tracfones no longer have service or a phone number. We basically, need to start all over in the next few weeks.
We went online and purchased new SIM cards. However, twice the Tracfone site refused to accept our U.S. debit card from Wells Fargo.
I switched to our Canadian card and success. The cards got to our American firends who will relay the cards on.
Then this weekend, I needed to check Wells Fargo and found .... yes, two charges from Tracfone < for cards that cannot be ordered and have no order number >.
I got hold off a Tracfone rep. who assured me the charges did not go through.

And Wells Frago. M s card expired. We tried to get a renewal but M doesn't have information on our data page at WF. M cannot get new card w/out visiting an actual branch < like 400 miles from here >. 

Brilliantly, I asked ' can I order a second debit card ? '
" Yes ". Great right.

We waited and today two cards appeared and 2 PIN codes seperately. However, one PIN didn't match the debit card 16 digit #. I called Wells Fargo and explained. The agent then says ' I see that you ordered 4 cards"
FOUR ? No wonder a PIN didn't match b/c that PIN is for a card still in transit or the ether. And we await 2 more Debit cards and PINs. The agent said to keep what we need and destroy the rest - well, actually, if the Debit card is not acitvated w/in 10 days, the card expires.
The upshot is - we will carry 3 Debit cards to the U.S. - figure out which ones work and destroy one later.
The one Debit card that we had here expired in 2023. The new Debit cards exp 2026. Crikey ! Never easy. Never dull.

So ends the saga, for now.

A Bright Still Day

 post # 3 342

the sun is the key feature today. We are talking about in and around 32 F.

I visit the Dr this afternoon. It has been a long time. The door is locked and you have to knock and answer protocol questions. 

Bright Sun Out There

 but its FYFO - again and for the week

Hey ! we are not used to 28 or 32 or whatever it is out there.

I told M,, this is like the movies of, life in the ' New World ' for the pilgrims. Snow, cold and more of the same.  

 A large over section on the TorStar proclaims " Canada - the World Cup next ! " Big, news. The first time since 1985. We are used to waiting though. The Maple Leafs, last won a Stanley Cup in 1967.

The day was tempting. But step outside and ' Brrrr ! '. If we hang on - can we hang on --> 50 come Thurs

Catching the Rye

 or young people in the rye grass

Yes, still watching the ' Rebellion in the Rye ' or  the J.D. Salinger story.

Well, he's published and I am not. However, he has pscyh problems. The demons that haunt us. Unrequited love, which he absolutely insisted be kept in the ' Catcher in the Rye '. The rationale : this is what life is - failure. Not a popular sentiment for publishers at the time < or now ? >

I finished the workout an hour ago. I've added sitting chin ups to the routine. This means sitting on the floor and doing chin ups < cheating, definitely cheating >. It has added a bit of zip to the, some 70 minutes of ' sort of not fun but sweat ' session.
And the standing joke around this house, revovles around the ' Peloton people ' and how happy they are slaving away on that bike or whatever c.f. to me and the ' animal noises ' that M hears from the basement. Not pretty, that.

' what light through yonder

 window breaks ? " by W. Shakespeare et al

The light here is muted. The air is still but maybe some tree trunks are swaying slightly

" tell them that its human nature

when they say ' why, why ' " Prokoff and Bettis < ? sp >

A slow day on the ranch, but then they all seems slow. Problem : when it gets exciting, so tiring, sad but true

Where are the fun filled days. Alright ! Name one.
Oops ! 

Alarum ! Alarum

yes - 5 AM wke up as the house alarm blares. Run to the keypad and abort alert. Great.

BTW, this is the sensor thats been eating batteries. All the other sensors go for a year plus before change is needed. The downstairs window ? well, about every 2 months. This go round, only 1 month since change occurred.
Another tech visits - last ditch is replace the sensor.

And this AM, in 10 minutes, I have a virtual visit w/ the doctor. I have a mole / pimple thingy on my back. The ' villain ' is unchanged for at least a month. Better to have it looked at.

Follow up. The Tech determined that not much could be done re: the downstairs sensor. Definitely, poor reception of WiFi and the new relay barely helps. The tech moved the sensor higher on the casement BUT ultimately ..... the sensor will fail.
Solution. Take out the sensor and use burglar bars on the 2 windows on the east side of the house downstairs.
Great.

On AmazonTV, I'm watching the story of J.D. Salinger. Early in his career, a prof < Kevin Spacey, the actor > asks J.D. " are you willing to write stories that will never be read " < really, published, he meant " >

" then you can be a writer " 

See. J.D. and me have a lot in common. NOT

And the ' Beat Goes On '

 #3 337 of 3 337 posts

Sonny and Cher

A gloomy one in the big Smoke or Hogtown or the 6ix

Early shopping at the SuperStore or RCSS. I managed to beat 1/2 the world there. No lineup - walk up and check out

Like magic.

Howeever, the weather has changed. The warmth is in the air - its not warm but you can feel that the bitter cold is slipping away. And there is 12 h + of sunlight.
FYI, in Svalbard on the Arctic Circle, on March 5 the sun cleared the horizon for the first time in 130 days < ? , well round about 4 months >

Bearly, Awake

 I grumpily acknowledge, the day. Dreary and forebidding
other than that its fine

God bless, the Ukraine. Keep a stiff upperlip, folks
A nasty business.

The upshot is - I should stir myself

 EEK !
you mean crawl out of bed

drag a comb across my head < sorry Beatles, stole that one >

Bullets are pinging off the skylight, the weather guy calls it snow pellets. Real,hard pellets, hey, its like hail

Luck to the Plucky

 are they talking about chickens or people

Ontario went with dropping the mask mandate. First day results in Toronto show that except for gym / fitness venues - 80 % of TO - ians went for masks. We knew this from comments on the weekend.

I'm masking til they catch me robbing a bank.

Loverly day, okay. Sun and bit of cloud, now wind to speak of.

Washed the truck - my hands went numb.

The Word of the week is

Sunshine. Mega. And wrmth

Sadly, every one knows hereabouts - May snowfall has happened

I broke down and picked up les mets Chinois from Skyland. Breaded shrimp, rice dumpling, BBQ pork and Sweet and Sour chicken + sushi

Skyland is a primarily Chinese leaning storee but the area has a Pakastani, South Asian population and you can see the emphasis. Some of the cashiers are S Asian < its the area >. Fruits and vegetble are plentiful and varied. The store is kept clean and organized. 
The hot table - takeaway is a 15 - 20 item area + noodles < 3 > and a sushi bar at the side.

Sun - spelled B R I L L I A N T

 booming blast of solar energy

YEAH !

" the devine conspiracy is not a goose - grease machine, turning over smoothly

it is a tarantella in the cosmic town square. Where inebriated dancers fling themselves in abandon, often, too often forgetting their role and bounding off. And like ants, those who labour in the town square doing the world's work, always bear the burden as a misflung hoof reaches out to punish the bystander "

paraphrased from ' Instrumentalities of the Night ' by  Glen Cook

Why does this perfectly mesh w/ the way my life seems to go ?

Yeah, flying hooves - a real problem. However, to keep everything in perspective - flying hooves are always there.

Well, shoping was a ' almost controlled ' tarantella. I strolled Giant Tiger and stuck out my hand and stuff kinda clung there. Of course, I had a goal - refill the freezer. So, I bough tortellini and found one already in the freezer when I got home.
A ham steak came home and joined three steaks and a pork chop. What do you know there was a little bag of chicken thighs too.
The upshot, we are in good shape.

RAIN, spelt R - A - I - N

 all day.

Temperature is 40 something

Oranges Got

 returned. No problem. Associate said ' you have a bad bunch here ! '

I took the credit and didn't go rummaging in the bin for a better bag.

Google announced ' hack ' protocols b/c using Chrome OS on top of other platform ' Windows etc ' leaves vulnerabilities. I mean, there are only 10 possible hacking scenarios. TEN.

Thats an ' Oops ' for sure. The primary dificulty is random searches from your computer, through Chrome. Right, and we do it all the time.

Definitely, warming and lightening up. A real change for us. Stay tuned for more.

I'm a fan of this weather. Long sleeve shirt for outdoors - neato

We are travelling - to N.Y. state in 2 weeks. We are gambling and  staying over.

We have problems. Our SIM cards for the U.S. are from Tracfone. Tracfone is / did change to Vo - LTE or newer than 4G. Our phones of record for Tracfone are old. For me, they delted my phone number < maybe > and for M. they claim that she needs a new phone in 17 days.

We will try to re - new service but - likely not. 

This Tracfone pay as you go - cost us $100 U.S.  a year and theyr olled over credit for phone time. Most other options would involve a new phone every time we visited the U. S. or a SIM card if the company carried our number < not a chance >. Thus, a new phone number for every visit. The cost $30 for 30 days or for us $ 400 minimum

Some folks have lost a lot more w/ CV 19 interference w/ their plans

Chicago Has Green

 Post # 3330

beer and I bought ' green ' oranges closer to brown. The bag is 1/3 rotten. Oops ! Ddin't check.

Warmish for what we've been thru. Snow flurries overnight - where the flakes went horizontal. Sun busted through the fog and the day looks fine. Stilldamp out there

Beware the Ides of March

or duck for cover if you live in Texas. Hail and tornadoes

We have fog and cold while waiting for a melt again. We'll touch 40 today and 50 tomorrow. The warning on CBC online says ' freezing fog ' so there. See if  you can match that.

 

Crikey !!!

 Snow. Yes, white fluffies. Where is spring - not the mattress but Spring

The roses were getting set to bloom

Alright, I exaggerated but Equinox is days away - we're at 11 h 54 min of sun

I'm hanging on, here.

I'm Melting

 I'm melting " was the anguished cry.

Not heee. Balmy and mostly sun. And grateful that the melt is on.

The forecast calls for above 40 all week. But precipitation comes in toward the end.

No robins and no grass. We got March 12 pix from England. Green grass and flowers < not flours >. But they are looking for missiles if Putin goes berserk. They are closer.

Snow Scapes

 at least for, 3 days. I'm not shovelling. W/ temperatures forecast for 50 F in 4 days. I'll wait

I'm hooked on the detective series ' ....... Prey ' by John Sandford. And getting criticized by M b/c I read them out of order.

On Netflix, ' Viking, Valhalla ' - a sequel to " Viking " is one hundred years later. Leif Erickson from Greenland lands in Sweden and marauds England w/ King Canute. Leif helps pull down London Bridge < wood > and conquer London.
But A) there is trouble back home in Sweden or Norway w/ pretenders
B) Christian Vikings threaten the homeland

Well, these are Vikings, not the happiest of souls

Got an Inch

 Post #3324

or so of the white stuff.

BTW, the Torstar had or has a short story contest < 2 500 words >. I started to write an entry and realized that the writing was ' the blog ' - different topic but, yeah, same crap that I do here.

The weather, is cold w/ the white stuff everywhere. Winds are gusting and the sun is blazing < not hot, blazing >. By week s end, the temperature will be close to 50. The sad part is that I remember that a guy from Maryland said that they leave St. Pete Bch in January - latish, ' to get home in time for spring ! January ????? Spring ?????

Envy is ugly. I'm ugly. We have snow and cold - MARCH !! No cherry blossoms here.

AND - snow !!!!

 drifting light and fluffy but - white rin

See. Live in the land of falling crap and you get snow.

We Mark the Seasons

 and wait. Wait ?

The change is here. Spring says ' Hello '. Yes, this is the day. You just know that th weather is saying Spring !

Thus, sun is ripe and winds still. WELCOME ! to my morning

Breaking Out

 WE ate dinner in a pub - the Queen Victoria

Corned beef on rye and London club sandwich

And beer and wine - this was on the way home from shopping

This day was mild. The sun was mostly in control w/ the wind breaking in, occasionally.

Whoo ! our bill at Superstore crossed into the $ 200 range. However, beer / wine and clothes lead the expenditure.

The Sally Ann

 post # 3330

or the Salvation Army. I made the decision to have one primary charity. I heard an anecdotal reference to the work of the Salvation Army. As well, there is a local church affiliated w/ the Salvation Army. I queried and ' yes ' the money that I donate to Cedarbrae Community Church stays in the area.
For me, this creates a guilt / bragging situation. I tell myself that when questioned about charities, I will say that S.A. is my charity. This week, I had the occassion to ask myself ' hey, did you send a cheque in to the Church '. Nope

C'mon, dummy its March already ! Thus, I wrote a cheque. BTW, no one has ever asked and I don't think that I've ever said what my charity is. ... Figures right ?

We will hover around freezing for the nest bit. Close to 32 .  To quote, ' Casey ', " somewhere the sun is shining, somewhere hearts are gay "

Big sun and gentle breeze. To lure you out of your shell. Go touch a tree < hug a tree ? >. CBC online had an item that children in contact w/ nature are less likely to develop A.D.H.D. 
And I always forget that everyone didn't grow up owning a cottage. Since 1963, I'm guessing that there were 4 years when I did not own or have access to a cottage. Even, these last 4 years, we do not own the old cottage but the  boat is there and in fishing season, I do get up there, weekly

Fishy Chips

 growing up, a favourite treat was fish and chips - once every two months. At school, I saved milk money and on Friday - slipped out, illegally, to Margaureta ( sp ? ) Fish and chips. $1.25 for lunch.

Yesterday, likely cost $ 17. Halibut, for me.

Rain is falling and will fall til night w/ dropping temperatures - ice on the road.

A Warm Lion

 it seems. Today, in bright sun the winds roar and the predicted high is N of 45 F

However, there is a drop off to about 35 or so and it never goes up for the week. Keep your long johns handy.

How s about N of 50 F - thats what the car recorded on the way to fish and chips

March Comes in Like

 a lion

Goes out like a lamb

Definitely got the the first part right. And today tops freezing w/ dim lighting

Warmer seems to be coming but that long range didn't look a treat < pls see past posts on Long Range - cold and dry

Fishing Friday

 No. You did it right. I went fishing on Friday and caught fish

Very cold but oodles of fish

Cold and Sunny

in the ' 6ix '

FYFO, again but we will warm < maybe > < I hope ! >

A lazy day, brought in roasted chicken and sides.

As well, I went to Shoppers Drug b/c it is Seniors Day or 20 % off. And SDM had a buy more deal. Spend at least $ 50 and get a $ 10 gift card for SDM. Yes, I qualified.
Then at checkout the nice assistant helped < she did it all > at self serve and hnded me a CV 19 rapid test bundle of 5 test packets.

Not a bad day. 

Marching 2

 somewhere ?

or March 2. A quiet day in the 'burbs. Full sun w/ splatters of cloud

Let's See

 well, perch dinner last night.

I did a flour, egg dip and bread crumb coating on the fillets.

We had rice as a side and corn. We had frozen niblets that are ' peaches and cream ' < a tasty variety >. M asked about tartar sauce and I said that we didn't have any. Oops ! Should have made some.

The temperature was cold overnight - however, we should warm up - a bit today. The high is supposed to be just shy of 40. The wind is chilly tho'

Repeat from yesterday. I like to track the sun up/ down times and long range forecast. The forecast thing is that I like to know how good these guys are at guessing - oh, sorry modelling.

The long range from Brett Anderson at Accuweather. I give you the name of the dude so that he takes the blame when it all  goes South

FE 28 to MR 6 - edge of both cold and dry. { Great FYFO, still }

MR 7 to 13 - massive cold bulge { time to a buy a sun lamp } { or Corona beer ?? }

MR 14 to 20 - edge  of cold coming out of the W